Justifying the continued use of this website, other than just archiving cool stuff from the 2010’s. There’s a new Trae Crowder special premiering tonight via 800 Pound Gorilla, and it should be fantastic.

In the face of all that “comedy czar” stuff happening vis-à-vis the alt-right’s hijacking of the comedy industry (with enthusiastic buy-in from our media overlords), it may be the most effective, rather than consistently highlighting the shitty actions of a shitty few, use your energy to support and call attention to our remaining actually-working, actually-funny, actually-working-class comics like Trae. It’s tantamount to actually spending money on journalism rather than bitching about paywalls then complaining about “the media.” I commented on this phenomenon (I think it eventually accrued the label “attention economy”) regarding the ‘Louis CK problem’ in One Punk’s Guide to Stand-up Comedy: around 2017, when the New York Times publicized what most people in stand-up already knew about CK, it became impossible to actually promote your own grassroots shows on social media, because algorithms focused on the 50 open-mic’ers who were whining about literally anything CK did. This lesson may be applicable in other arenas. I know I’m only one person, but COME ON.

Anyway, keep these specials coming, Trae. We need you and the people you may inspire to get into this stuff.